


Valkog's Ambition: Salgin: Plaza

by moody_trans_detective



Series: Rogueass Galaxy [55]
Category: Rogue Galaxy
Genre: Angst, Gen, Zegram is interested in beasts...again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:59:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29757204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moody_trans_detective/pseuds/moody_trans_detective
Summary: Jaster is uncomfortable being back in Salgin.
Series: Rogueass Galaxy [55]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956043





	Valkog's Ambition: Salgin: Plaza

Kisala and Lilika seemed very happy. They led the way through Salgin, despite neither of them having been there before, talking, Kisala laughing occasionally. She bought a sanchez fruit from a stall and cut it in half with one of her daggers, reached up to feed it to Lilika. Jaster lingered near the back, trying to keep his gaze down. The others didn’t get it, weren’t accustomed to having to placate the armed forces here. But being back in these streets…

Jaster saw Yeshim crossing the plaza, head down as she passed a couple Longardian soldiers. They left her alone. This time, Jaster thought. He had the desire to run over to her, see how she was, but then an inexplicable fear gripped him and he couldn’t get his feet to deviate from their current path.

Something inside him ached. He hadn’t expected returning to Rosa would be so difficult. He couldn’t shake the feeling there was something terrible about him, like he’d turned his back on the planet, like he’d betrayed everyone still here. They had to deal with the day to day tediousness and danger of occupation, while he was able to hop from planet to planet, even if the company was awful.

They were still trapped here, while he was freer than he’d ever been.

“Huh. This really is a run-down town,” said Zegram. He looked around, then directly at Jaster.

“That’s what happens when Longardian forces take over.” Jaster hoped Deego heard him. If he did, he didn’t acknowledge it. “Hard to keep up a place when the resources are getting stolen.”

“Ye cou’d benefit from the tech we have on Zerard,” said Simon.

“Rosa is fine the way it is,” said Jaster. He couldn’t believe he had to defend this. Not only did he feel foreign in his own town, like Salgin had rejected him, it seemed everyone else viewed him in a similar way, that he was confusingly different.

“I remember thinkin’ it when we were first ‘ere.” Simon ignored Jaster, chatting to Steve. “This place is pathetic. Can’ believe the Desert Claw would live somewhere like this.”

“Well, Mr. Rogue is not after all the Desert Claw, is he?” said Steve.

Jaster clenched his teeth.

“Here, kid,” said Zegram, and, in a tragic display of trying to be not a complete asshole, passed over his grog flask.

Jaster eyed it. He got the feeling the man was trying to groom him, although not in a sexual sense. More that Zegram wanted Jaster to be like him. He shook his head.

“After last night? I’m good.”

“Your loss.” Zegram had a drink. “So, what kinda beasts does this planet have? Beyond that salamander.”

Jaster sighed. This already.

“We might come across some statue dogs or dragonflies in town,” he said, thinking it was best to just get this over with and give Zegram what he wanted. “The occasional cactulus, or mish, or sand tortoise.”

“In town.”

“Yeah. Look, there’s military, but they don’t actually do shit. They don’t protect us. We never got beasts in Salgin until they came.”

Zegram had another swig of Pirate’s Grog.

“Not here for your bitching, kid.”

“Out in the Sylvazard Desert there are vultures, killer mish, black horns, scorpions…Worms burrow through the shifting sands. If you don’t watch your step they could drag you under. I usually go out on a yago, but I guess this time we’ll just have to be careful.”

“Huh,” said Zegram. “I think I hearda Sylvazard worms. Big friggin’ things?”

Jaster nodded once.

“Drown you in sand.” Zegram sounded thoughtful. “Sounds like a damned awful way to go.”

“It’s not good.” Jaster had known a few people, over the years, who’d died that way. Presumably, at least. If no one was around to watch you go under… “No one finds your body for years, if ever. Sometimes corpses come up with the shifting sands, and they can be from centuries ago.” Jaster shrugged. “Also, you want to keep your boots on, or their spawn can get into your bloodstream. You’ll have to get dewormed.”

“And you’re really turning down a drink? Damn, kid.”

Jaster cast a glance down the street to the right, the one eventually leading to the church. He was back in Salgin. He should go visit Raul…He realized he both missed his father and was terrified to see him again. He hadn’t been gone long, but what had changed? Without Jaster, had Raul been able to afford the upkeep of the church? Raul had to know by now it had been Jaster who’d contributed so often to the donations, since they would have dried up right after he’d left.

“What, girlfriend—boyfriend?—down that way?” asked Zegram, drinking again.

“My father…”

“Yeah, I’d give that a miss. He know you’re a little space whore?”

Jaster swallowed.

“I don’t know.” He feared Raul did. He feared his clients, knowing where he lived, had come looking for him, and spoke to Raul instead. And that plus the amount of money he’d been making—well, there really weren’t many explanations.

“Space whore?” asked Steve. He’d fallen back, apparently interested in their conversation.

Zegram snorted.

“Gonna explain whoring to a robot with the mental capacity of a ten-year-old, kid?”

Jaster scowled, while Steve made a sharp kind of half-beep, half-vocalization.

“I am truly offended right now,” he said. “I only wanted to know—”

“Whores have sex fer money,” said Simon, bounding over. “It’s like a sexual transaction. Good ones’re werth every last zehn.”

“Heh,” said Zegram. “Better when you can get ‘em to do it for free.”

Jaster had a feeling Zegram was talking about him.

They were nearly at the gate to Sylvazard Desert, with the street leading to the church practically out of view. Jaster knew he’d delayed just so that he’d get this far and decide not to hold the rest of the party up. He couldn’t go visit Raul now. There were things to do. But maybe on the way back…

He swallowed. He still ached inside. He’d thought the Longardian occupation had made him feel distant from home. But this, this pirate thing, made him farther away from Salgin than ever. Maybe going into the desert would help with that. Maybe he’d get his connection back there.


End file.
